The Camilla Parker-Bowles of the game world, Football Manager has been sited in over 35 divorce cases in the UK alone since its inception in 2004, and the series shows no sign of letting up in its relentless quest to become the disruptive third party in the nation's relationships.

It's hard to believe there can be many people who've not been exposed to FM in some way, whether it be through a child's mysteriously disappointing exam results, or a spouse suddenly developing insomnia, but for those who've some how avoided it Football Manager is the pre-eminent management simulation. What separates FM from the other pretenders is a match engine honed over nearly eighteen years and an unparalleled level of detail and fidelity – with a vast, worldwide scouting network that's the envy of many a Premier League club, spotting players like Kaka and Messi long before their rise to prominence.

Football Manager 2010 doesn't seek to reinvent the wheel. Very much an evolution of last year's entry, it polishes what was already the best management sim on the market, creating a gem of a game which is at the same time more accessible to beginners and deeply satisfying for veterans.

The revamp of the navigation system is instantly noticeable, the tabbed based method is highly intuitive and unclutters the screen for a cleaner layout. However, the feature that will be of most use to the novice is the tactics engine, making it a doddle to get your team playing how you want. It sounds simple, but now rather than tinkering with counters for passing, tackling etc, players can be assigned specific roles, such as 'deep-lying playmaker', which do all the hard work for you, while still allowing experts to fiddle with the minutiae. The entire system is a triumph, guiding the player through the complete process from an inspired decision to create a fast-moving, close pressing 3-3-4 formation, to it's inevitably spectacular failure on the pitch.

The beauty of this is all the more evident when coupled with the vastly improved 3D match engine, which corrects the flaws of last year's effort allowing you to instantly see the results of your tactical tinkering, while making sensible additions like the ability to holler at the team from the sidelines to alter their style of play in a hurry.

It's unlikely those alienated by the obscene level of detail and life consuming addictiveness will be swayed by this year's effort, but it just might be the best Football Manager ever.